French woman obsessed with her former partner and her new lover were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for torturing and murdering their young nanny at their London home.
Sabrina Kouider, 35, and her partner Ouissem Medouni, 40, were sentenced to life in prison with minimum terms of 30 years.
Kouider and Medouni were found guilty of killing 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet, attempting to burn her corpse and spinning what Police called “a web of lies to justify the torture and murder of their vulnerable young nanny.’’
The Police were called after firefighters responded to a neighbour’s call about excessive smoke coming from the garden of the French couple’s home in south-west London in September, becoming suspicious about Medouni’s claim that he was cooking a sheep.
London’s top criminal court, The Old Bailey, heard during the trial that Kouider was “obsessed with the father of her youngest child,’’ her ex-partner Mark Walton, an Irish music producer.
Prosecutors said Lionnet, also French, had been “subjected to obsessive and fantastical accusations over several months by Kouider and Medouni,’’ including recorded interrogations.
“She was mistreated, intimidated and starved before being subjected to prolonged violence and eventually murdered,’’ the Crown Prosecution Service said.
London’s Metropolitan Police said Kouider had accused Lionnet of conspiring with Walton to help him win custody of his son.
“It was clear that, together, the couple made the decision to torture Sophie and then in a cowardly fashion, blamed each other for her death,’’ the Police said. (dpa/NAN)